Enjoying the Race!

Caroline didn’t have her post ready today, oh the pressures of a sixth grade schedule! So I thought I’d share how I used bleach to draw the dandelions on this blanket.

Firstly I washed and dried the linen, this pulled all the excess dye out. The color was called ink, it was a very deep, dark navy, but it faded to a nice washed, deep blue. Next I searched Google Images for dandelion clip art.

I found a bunch, and fell in love with the lightness of this one.

Then I gathered up the materials, a Clorox Gel Pen, a bottle of Clorox Bleach Gel, and a couple of pencils with good erasers.

I was way to chicken to free hand, so I used white chalk to sketch on the design. This really worked well, it was easy to brush off the chalk to change the design and it didn’t affect the bleaching at all. But, if you are feeling brave, you can just draw with the bleach pen!

Then I just colored in the lines. I really puddled up the bleach in the solid areas, and used long sweeping strokes down the stems. It gave a nice effect.

For the finer areas I used the pencil eraser t0 make the dot, then swiped the bleach with the pencil points to make the fine lines.

After I had it all ‘colored’ in, I left it flat on the counter for several hours to dry. Most of it did, but the thickest areas remained gooey. I carefully rolled it up with the bleached area on the outside of the ball, and threw it in the washer, then the dryer.

Here is a closer pic of the finished product.

I’m mostly happy with the result, I’m not much of an artist, but I think it’s fairly obvious that these are dandelions, that’s about the best I could hope for! I think this would be a fun way to customize napkins, tablecloths, tote bags and even t-shirts, let your imagination be your guide! For full directions on making the linen throw, click here.

Caroline will no doubt return with more crafty posts next Tuesday, schedule permitting!